Anna Wala

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anna Wala (born March 21, 1891 in Vienna ; died May 24, 1944 there ) was an Austrian mannequin , later a civil servant and resistance fighter against National Socialism . She was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary and beheaded.

Life

After attending compulsory school, Wala was employed as a mannequin and manipulator for various women's clothing manufacturers until 1932. From 1940 she worked as a civil servant in the Auslandsbriefprüfstelle, a censorship office of the Nazi regime.

Wala was from 1915 to 1932 a member of the Social Democratic Labor Party and the union of private employees . From 1939 she worked for the Communist Youth Association of Austria (KJVÖ), donated for the Red Aid , made her apartment available for illegal meetings and hid illegal literature. From 1942 she participates in the resistance group The Soldiers 'Council and their mailing campaigns of so-called soldiers' letters , through which front-line fighters were called to resistance and desertion. Anna Wala was arrested on May 25, 1943 and charged on September 23, 1943 by the senior Reich attorney at the People's Court in Berlin for “preparing for high treason and favoring the enemy ”.

Indictment

“She strongly condemned measures and orders of the National Socialist government, especially as far as they concerned the settlement of the Jewish question. She openly explained to her co-workers that she hated this war and was just as impressed by the deaths of Bolsheviks and British as she was by the deaths of German soldiers. She tried to make her workmate Novotny understand that the German war newsreel had been posted and claimed that the German propaganda was false. "

- Oberreichsanwalt : Indictment against Anna Wala dated September 23, 1943

Wala wanted to "advance the enemy of the empire" and "put our war power at a disadvantage". The comrades Ernestine Diwisch , Friedrich Muzyka , Alfred Rabofsky , Ernestine Soucek and Sophie Vitek were also accused . Anna Wala was also accused of having "closer ties to Jews". On February 8, 1944, she was sentenced to death and “loss of honor for life” by the People's Court in Vienna . Of her co-defendants, only Sophie Vitek, whose death sentence was changed to 15 years in prison, and Ernestine Soucek, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison, survived.

Anna Wala was, like Ernestine Diwisch and Frederick Muzyka, on 24 May 1944 in the Regional Court of Vienna by the guillotine executed.

Sources and literature

  • Baier, Susanne: The resistance of communists in Austria. Dipl. Arb. Vienna 1987
  • Brauneis, Inge: Resistance of women in Austria against National Socialism 1938-1945. Diss. Vienna 1974
  • Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Vienna 1934-1945. A documentation. Vol. 2, Vienna 1984
  • Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Lower Austria 1934-1945. A documentation. Vol. 2, Vienna 1987
  • Austrian women in resistance : Short biography Anna Wala , written by Karin Nusko, accessed on April 6, 2015
  • Tidl, Marie: The Red Students. Documents and memories 1938-1945. Europaverlag, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-203-50600-9 .
  • Willi Weinert: “You can put me out, but not the fire”: a guide through the grove of honor of Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery for the executed resistance fighters . Wiener Stern-Verlag, 3rd edition 2011 [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from the resistance fighters project
  2. ↑ Katharina Kniefacz, Alexander Krysl, Manès Weisskircher: University and Discipline: Members of the University of Vienna and National Socialism , Münster 2011, 32f
personal data
SURNAME Wala, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian mannequin, later civil servant and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1944
Place of death Vienna